Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The draasin thrashed against the chain, and as much as Jayna wanted to release the creature, she didn’t dare, not until they knew whether they had control of it. But seeing such a majestic elemental bound in chains and held to the ground pained her. The draasin were meant to fly free, not be held by some shaping or shaped creation of man.

  “It is not safe to free him yet,” Olina said.

  “You would not kill it?” Calan asked.

  Jayna had expected something like this reaction from him and hadn’t known what she would do—whether there was anything that she could do or say that would change him. He had gone after the draasin, even after knowing what the others in the camp were willing to do to protect them.

  “Why kill the draasin?” Olina asked. “Why destroy elemental power? Does that make you stronger?”

  “Not stronger, but it would make us safer.”

  “The draasin are not the enemy, shaper of Atenas. They have been used, no differently than Atenas has been used, no differently than Rens has been used.” Olina stood in front of him, a smaller woman, but she held herself in such a way that she looked larger. Calan took a step back from her.

  “Used? How has Ter been used?”

  Olina jabbed at him with her finger. “You saw what the Khalan wanted. You saw the way that they tried to twist you. Had you not had the training that you did, you would have been twisted no differently than this draasin has been twisted.”

  Calan fell silent.

  “How do you intend to free the draasin?” Jayna asked.

  “Without a way to summon a counter, we must get the summoner to release it.”

  “But Tenebeth—” Jayna started.

  “This is not Tenebeth. This is foolish men who think to channel and control the power of the darkness, and in doing so, they have released it. When Tenebeth—the true Tenebeth—takes control of something, it requires a different effort to remove.”

  “What is Tenebeth?” Calan asked.

  Olina rounded on him and jabbed her finger at him again. “Do not pretend that you don’t know who Tenebeth is. Cheneth did not hide what you faced.”

  “Cheneth,” Calan said, his face souring. “You are with him.”

  “You would be against him?” Olina questioned. “You who have seen the way that darkness twists and taints, who have seen the way that your own student has been turned? Do not pretend that you know so little. Do not be a fool.”

  Calan took a step back at the rebuke. “Who are you?”

  Olina smiled. “I can once again claim the title of Olina the Wise. It has been many years since I have deserved that title.”

  They return.

  Serain’s sudden intrusion was a reminder of what had changed.

  “They’re on their way back,” she said. “We either need to leave, or we need to be ready for a fight.”

  “I cannot leave. Not until he is free.”

  “Then we fight.”

  Calan shook his head. “You would stay and risk yourselves for one of the draasin?”

  “I would die for the draasin,” Olina said, “if that is what it took to get him free. I understand what is at stake, just as I understand that I must do my part to ensure that we succeed.”

  Calan frowned. “I would not.”

  He took another step back from them and, with a sudden crackle of lightning, disappeared on a shaping.

  Olina took a deep breath. “I had hoped that he would remain to help.”

  “Maybe you could have been a bit gentler with him.”

  “Gentle does not get us where we need. He must see that his role is not one of destruction. I think that is why Cheneth kept him in his camp. He could be a powerful ally if he so chooses.”

  “I’m not sure why Cheneth would have kept him in the camp. He hunts the draasin, Olina.”

  “And Hyaln allowed the draasin to leave. How is that so much different?”

  “It is different.”

  You must be ready, Serain said.

  “They’re nearly here,” Jayna said.

  Olina watched her for a moment, an amused smile playing on her lips. “You have grown more sensitive in the time that you were captured.”

  She only nodded.

  There wasn’t time for any more response.

  Wind picked up. Jayna called to it and sailed into the air. “Will you be able to protect yourself?”

  “I am not so helpless as I seem.”

  For one of the wise, Jayna didn’t think her helpless at all. Many of the Wise were not nearly so competent as to protect themselves in the way of the shapers or summoners. Even rune traps, when used in the right way, could be effective defensively.

  “I did not think you were helpless at all.”

  Jayna watched as Olina began tapping on arms crossed over her chest. Each hand tapped on the opposite arm, but more than that, they moved in a steady rhythm, almost a circle but not quite. Earth rumbled in response. Heat flashed, and at first, Jayna thought it came from the draasin, but the draasin remained chained far from them.

  Had Olina learned how to control the summons?

  The Wise were intelligent, but there was a particular talent required to become one of the summoners. She had not thought that many of the Wise possessed that talent, but it appeared that Olina had learned some things in her time away from Hyaln. Perhaps distance and the need for power different than what she could access without the draasin had created the need. Or maybe there was more to Olina than she had realized. Jayna wouldn’t put it past her for the woman to be more skilled than she let on.

  She let the wind carry her and moved above the ground, soaring into the sky. She didn’t shape, letting Serain guide her, not needing to shape. Instead, she held onto the connection, knowing that she might have need of that ability and not wanting to risk having it severed as it had been before. Now that she was connected to Serain, she added the wind shaping to it, augmenting what she could use with what she could shape. The power she managed to manipulate was much more than she ever had managed.

  Wind pressed on her. This was not shaped, but came through the same connection that she shared with Serain.

  Not the same. She knew. This was summoned, directed, but not the contact that she had from her connection to Serain.

  Could she add a summons to what she shaped and connected to the elemental?

  Jasn had described how much more powerful he had been when he learned how to use not only the connection to the elemental, but also added the ability to summon with it. Could she do something similar?

  Her ability with summoning was not as skilled as the summoners, and wasn’t even as skilled as what Jasn had learned in his short time studying in Hyaln. He really was a quick study, but then he had come from a place of skill prior to coming to Hyaln. If nothing else, Cheneth had helped sculpt him into a skilled shaper.

  Jayna did not need the same help learning how to shape. Hyaln had taught her, and then she had focused her energy on improving those skills, abandoning the lessons that she had learned from the summoners. Now she wished that she had not.

  How to summon the wind?

  The movement came from within, a flickering sort of movement rather than anything steady or rhythmic. That called for fire or earth if she were to add more rhythm to her movement. There was intent involved as well, and perhaps that was what would help her the most. Now that she was connected to Serain, the intent would be easiest to reach.

  She focused on the wind, on the image of Serain, holding the connection she shared with the elemental in her mind, and shaped while creating the summons as she remembered it.

  Power surged, more than she had ever managed, more than she would ever have considered possible.

  Push against the summons.

  This came from Serain. She sat deep in Jayna’s mind and seemed pleased with what she attempted.

  Jayna thought about the way the wind pressed upon her. This was summoned wind, but she was tied to it in ways that summoners would never understan
d. She had bonded to the wind, and she could shape it without summoning. In some ways, she was the wind.

  Her magic met resistance, and then that faded, destroyed by the combination of a shaping and her connection to Serain, mixed with her summons.

  Someone shouted. Through spirit, she thought it was Shade.

  Jayna streaked toward it, wrapped in shaping power, holding tight to the connection she shared with Serain.

  They needed to sever the connection between Shade and the draasin so that Olina could be freed. If that meant destroying Shade, then she would do it.

  Earth and fire lashed at her, one element from each side.

  Jayna pushed back, using a shaping, but they were stronger—their summons were stronger—than what she could shape.

  But not wind.

  Using the wind, Jayna created a buffer between her and the elementals they used. She needed to prevent them from reaching her and needed to keep them from summoning. If she could disrupt the summons… but how?

  Using a torrent of wind, she spiraled around them. They attempted to push back, but she was the wind, and there was nothing that they could do against her. The other elements and the summoned elementals would not fight against her connection to the wind. What could they do when she dragged on the connection that she had discovered?

  Her connection to the summons disappeared with a snap.

  Jayna tried reaching for it again but was pressed back. Serain remained connected, but Jayna struggled with shaping, almost as if the connection to her shaping had been separated from her as well.

  Help me! she begged of Serain.

  There is only so much that I can do to aid you in this. You must overcome it.

  Overcome what? How can I do that when I don’t know what it is that I need to do?

  For a moment, her connection to Serain faded, and she couldn’t even reach the elemental any longer, then she managed to reconnect and heard the elemental’s voice within her mind.

  You must be strong.

  Then she was gone.

  The wind faded, and she found herself facing the three Khalan summoners.

  Shade drifted toward her. “I admit that I am surprised that you managed to escape us. I thought that you were more subdued. Perhaps the next time, I will have to be more persuasive.”

  His fingers tapped, moving in something of a rhythm.

  Her entire being cried out a warning, screaming at her to avoid the summons that he worked, not wanting her to get caught by the darkness that he would draw forth, but how could she avoid it? What was there that she could do, especially if he had managed to overwhelm her ability to shape and summon and speak to Serain?

  There was nothing that she could do.

  She had failed.

  Shade sneered at her, triumphant, almost as if he could read her thoughts.

  Could the dark summoning allow him to read her thoughts? Did it grant him some of the same abilities as she had as one of the Enlightened?

  Jayna blinked. Enlightened.

  Working with Serain had made her forget that she was more than simply a wind shaper. She had abilities others outside of Hyaln did not understand. She was one of the Enlightened.

  Could she still shape?

  Jayna reached for the connection to spirit and surprisingly found that it remained within her. Holding onto that, she sent it streaking toward Shade, wanting only to incapacitate him.

  There came resistance when her spirit summons hit. His eyes widened slightly. Then he started to shake.

  Jayna pressed with her shaping, and he shook even more.

  She thought that she might succeed. At that moment, she thought that she might be able to get free of Shade and that she might be able to help the draasin.

  Jayna had neglected the others.

  Power slammed into her from either side.

  She started to fall toward the ground. Serain!

  She didn’t know if the elemental would hear her, or whether they had done something that would prevent her from reaching the elemental.

  Serain!

  The elemental didn’t answer, but a sweep of wind caught her and lifted her into the air.

  She would not be able to defeat the three of them by herself. What had she been doing thinking that she could?

  Jayna held onto her connection to spirit and sent a shaping toward Sevn. He seemed the easiest target of the remaining Khalan. She was satisfied when her shaping struck, and he went spiraling away from her.

  That left only the woman and Shade, but Shade seemed to struggle with the fact that she had somehow managed to get free from what he had done to her. She needed the time that it took during his confusion so that she could figure out a way to get the draasin free. What she really needed was a way to destroy Shade.

  “You have proven yourself more challenging than he expected,” the woman said.

  Was that a hint of respect in her tone, or was that something else?

  Serain!

  She might not be able to reach the elemental or to use her the same way that she had before, but all she needed was for it to carry her forward

  If she could reach either Shade or the woman, she thought that she might be able to knock one of them down.

  The woman. She remained the largest threat.

  Wind pushed her forward. Jayna knifed through the air, letting it carry her forward, and she reached the woman, who pushed her away, almost as if she were nothing more than a child.

  Lightning crackled.

  Jayna glanced up, thinking that it didn’t feel like a storm should come. The air didn’t have the same humidity or the charge to it that she would expect.

  She was surprised to see Calan.

  He appeared on a streak of lightning. His sudden appearance was enough to disrupt the summoning that the others used. Jayna regained her ability to shape fully, and the connection to Serain returned with a snap.

  Shade’s eyes went wide.

  The woman glanced from Jayna to Calan and then disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke.

  “There’s one more,” Jayna said.

  “He was the worst of them,” Calan answered. He streaked away, looking for Sevn, leaving Jayna facing Shade alone.

  “Release the summoning you use on the draasin,” she demanded.

  Shade’s eyes tightened, and his fingers began moving in a furious rhythm. With Serain’s help, she constricted him in bands of wind, limiting his ability to complete the summons. There were some who supposedly possessed the ability to summon without movement, but she would have to take the chance that Shade was not one of them, though if any could, it would be those of the Khalan.

  “Release the summons!”

  Her words snapped with the wind, carried not by a shaping, but by Serain.

  Shade’s face tightened in concentration and Jayna squeezed even more, holding tightly to him, refusing to release him as she held him in place.

  “Would you die for this?” Jayna asked. “Because that will remove your hold over the draasin.”

  “I am not afraid of dying.”

  “No? You seem afraid of it. I think that you fear the unknown, as we all do, only you haven’t taken the time to consider where you will go once your body and mind leave this place.”

  Shade watched her, then spat. “Enlightened. That’s what you are. I should have known that the damned Enlightened would send someone here.”

  Jayna took a deep breath and looked around her. “I am more than Enlightened.”

  35

  Jasn

  Does the college maintain records of this as well? Do they observe even the Khalan? What will they write of our plan?

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  Jasn surfed on the platform of water, spinning in an ever-rising torrent as he struggled to find what had happened to Ciara and Cheneth. They were out there, somewhere. Water and spirit sensing told him that they were near, but he couldn’t detect them well enough to know.

  Blast these shadows!

  H
e sent a surge of shaped energy into the fog of darkness and parted them even more. Jasn let the water shaping carry him, guiding the connection to water to hold him in the air, and gradually drifted in the direction that he hoped he’d find them.

  Eventually, the shadows completely lifted. Jasn found himself in the middle of the ocean, staring at rising swells rocking gently below him, with no evidence of land in sight.

  Where was he?

  Can you guide me?

  Where would you go, Child of Water?

  He created an image of Ciara and Cheneth in his mind, hoping that the water would understand what he sought. As he did, the water started pushing him, driving him ahead of a massive wave. Using water and wind, he held himself upright, struggling not to fall into the water as he surfed. No longer did he need his sword, so he sheathed it, riding with the shaping.

  There was something almost peaceful as he did. The energy and effort required to carry him this way was not nearly as much as he’d used for a warrior shaping. With this, he was able to use the connection to water and could use his ability to summons, carrying him across the sea. When he looked back, he faced a wall of water and briefly felt a flicker of fear. If the water were to crash down onto him, he doubted that he would be able to withstand the force, but then, he didn’t need to worry. With his connection to water, it wouldn’t harm him.

  Land came into view.

  The wave swept him forward, rolling ever faster, throwing him toward the shore. Jasn tried slowing the wave, realizing that he wasn’t traveling toward the same island that he’d seen before, but there was no way that he would be able to slow the water. It rolled with him, an inevitability sending him toward the shore. The only way that he would be able to get free of it would be to shape himself higher into the air, and he didn’t want to do that.

  The wave crashed upon the shore and Jasn slid forward with it, riding once more on a platform of water, until he came to a stop.

  He turned to the ocean. The water slowly receded, the shaping and the force of the elementals that had brought him this far now pulling back into the sea, and realized that he must be once more on the mainland.